Nintendo's Next Console Could Be Region-Free

Rumors are swirling about the upcoming NX, and this is the latest on the saga.

Nintendo's unknown "NX" project has everyone guessing what it might be, especially with the smattering of additional details we seem to get in waves. The latest tidbit of news comes from Nintendo president Satoru Iwata, as he has come forward with information about the company's position on region-locking their hardware in relation to the upcoming NX hardware.

At a recent investor's Q&A, Iwata indicated that region-locking could very well be absent on the upcoming platform, though this wouldn't exactly change anything with the current roster of handhelds out there. Iwata's comments are as follows:

"Removing region-locking from current game machines presents various issues, so we don't consider that to be very realistic. However, regarding NX, given the customer feedback and proposals from the market, while nothing has been decided yet, we're currently investigating internally what problems there would be in realizing it. You can think of that as the current situation. I understand your desire, so I'd like to look at it optimistically going forward."

This quote doesn't exactly clear Iwata with confirmation that we'll be able to expect the upcoming NX to be region-free, but this very well could mean important things for the future, especially with the NX's stance as a mobile platform. That's one thing mobile phones and devices have on strict game consoles as it is: virtually the same games across every market. If this last barrier were to be removed, Nintendo could be looking at a much larger section of the market scrambling for a piece of the Nintendo pie, since games would then become open to everyone and not just certain parts of the world.

What do you think? Do you think the NX should be region-free or should Nintendo stick to its current strategy of locking things down?